John Egbert (1779-1873) & Susannah Hahn Egbert
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John Egbert (1779-1873) & Susannah Hahn Egbert (1786-1857) John Egbert Birth 12 July 1779 Staten Island, Richmond, NewYork Death 19 December 1873 Kaysville, Davis, Utah Susannah Hahn Birth 10 August 1786 Hagerstown, Washington, Maryland Death 1857 South Cottonwood, Salt Lake, Utah MARRIAGE: 1802 Nelson County, Kentucky History - As a boy John Egbert had been apprenticed out to a devout Catholic Cobbler that he might learn the harness making and shoemaking trade, as was the custom of the times. He eventually found his way to Western New York and later landed in Buffalo where he secured employment with a harness maker. A number of years later he owned a shop of his own. Somewhere along the Ohio River in Kentucky John fell in love with Susannah Hahn. Her parents were of sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Their acquaintance ripened into an engagement and John decided to go back to Buffalo and get his tools and supplies, promising to return. After gathering his belongings and transporting them to navigable water, he built a raft on which to float them down the river. After he had shoved out into deep water the raft started to sink with too much weight, and it went down with everything he had, and he barely escaped with his life. It was a heartbreaking loss and almost irreplaceable. Sorrowfully he made his way back to Susannah and told her he released her from all obligations to marry him as he was penniless. Her reply was that she had fallen in love with him and not what he might have accumulated and assured him that with the cooperation of working together they need not change their plans. They settled in Breckenridge, Harrison County, Kentucky, which lies about 60 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio, and here four children were born to them. And here they had their first great sorrow, for in 1812 they lost their oldest child, Grant. CHILDREN Grant Egbert, birth: 1803 Breckenridge, Harrison, Kentucky death: 1820 Sullivan, Sullivan, Indiana John Egbert, birth: March 1815 Breckenridge, Harrison, Kentucky - death: 1842 , , Illinois Mary Polly Egbert, birth: 1811 Breckenridge, Harrison, Kentucky marriage: about 1832 Breckenridge, Harrison, Kentucky spouse: Enoch SEXTON William Egbert, birth: 26 March 1812 Breckinridge, Harrison, Kentucky Samuel Egbert, birth: 24 March 1814 Breckenridge, Harrison, Kentucky Joseph Teasdale Egbert, birth: 10 March 1818 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana Corilla Egbert, birth: 10 June 1820 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana Robert birth: 10 June 1820 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana Cowden Egbert, birth: 12 May 1821 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana Elvira Egbert, 10 September 1822 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana Andrew Jackson Egbert, birth: 1825 / 1826 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana-death: 1837 Missouri, Illinois Elizabeth Egbert, birth: 22 March 1824 Sullivan, Indiana Hannah Egbert birth: 27 May 1829 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana Annie Egbert birth: 1831 Carlisle, Sullivan, Indiana In 1816 they moved over the Ohio River to the north and west in the state of Indiana. While on their way, their son John was born. They settled in Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana which was about 175 miles west and north of Breckinridge, their first home, but like it, they were favored with water transportation, it being only five miles east of the Wabash River, which empties into the Ohio, and kept them in touch with the doing of the day. In the sixteen years they lived here, they had eight more children born to them. In 1831 and 32 this whole frontier country was electrified by the news that a young man had found a golden book hidden in a hill in Western New York State, that the book had been given him by an angel, and that he had even seen God, himself, who had instructed him to form a new church. The Egbert’s had heard that there were missionaries in the Eastern part of Indiana and in Ohio, who had a book that had been translated from these golden plates. While John Egbert, from the experiences of his boyhood, was disgusted with religion, he felt that this might be something different, so he walked several hundred miles over the eastern part of the state and secured a book of Mormon. He read it eagerly, and believed its message. One comment he made has come down was that it had made plain many passages in the Bible that he could not previously understand. Soon after, an Elder of the Mormon Church by the name of Allred, came to their home and explained this new religion. The father and the mother with some of the older members of the family, were baptized. Their life was now to be associated intimately with the new faith. Little did they dream of the heartaches and trials they were to pass through in their next few years in following a leader who claimed to have communed with God and angels. Like all who accepted the leadership of this new church, they got the spirit of wanting to be among the main body of saints, and as Jackson County, Missouri had been designated as the gathering place for the New Zion, they accordingly, in 1833, set out for a new home with the eleven of their twelve children. The going was hard and the trip was slow and especially trying with this large family. After several days travel through mud, they began to wonder if their move was ill advised, and naturally they thought of turning back. It became a serious matter with them, as the family was divided as to what to do. Two of the older boys were determined to go on whether the family went or not, so the parents decided to make a camp along the creek nearby, and reach the final decision the next morning. During the night there was a hurricane with a drenching rain, the tents were blown down, and wagon covers torn off. By morning there was not a dry rag in camp, they were all drenched to the skin. The boys who wanted to go on the night before, were determined as ever but Father Egbert made the final decision. He said the storm was a chastisement to them forever thinking of turning back, and they would all go on together. A few more weeks they settled just outside of Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, but they were not permitted to enjoy their new home long, as the mobocrats were soon busy. They had destroyed the printing press that had published the Evening and Morning Star, the first paper published by the Church. Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps, John Whitmer, Algernon Sidney Gilbert, Bishop Partridge, and his two councilors had been sent from Kirtland, Ohio to preside and take charge of the work there. Every move by the Saints to establish themselves had been resented by the old Settlers. Bishop Partridge and Charles Allen had been stripped, tarred, and feathered on the public square, and there was trouble in the air. The home of the Egberts being on the outskirts of the settlement was one of the first to be raided. The family, on being appraised of the approach of the mob, hurriedly cut a bolt of homespun cloth, then being woven on the family loom, hid it in the loft of their dwelling. The home was ransacked, everything of value was taken. The barn was raided, and one of their most valuable horses was stolen. Later the leader of the mob was seen riding him. During the raid, Father, John Egbert, asked one of the mob for some tobacco, the robber replied he would rather give him a hot piece of lead, where upon Grandfather opened his shirt, barred his breast, and told him to shoot. This display of nerve evidently cowed the bravado of the mobber. They were forced to leave their crops, nearly ready to harvest, and they left for Clay County, Missouri just across the Missouri River to the north, where they had been invited to come and live by the kindly people. And for about five years they were permitted to go about peaceably growing and helping to build up the church. Wards and stakes were organized, and here we have information that Elvira and Robert were baptized by Apostle David W. Patten. John Egbert was now approaching sixty years of age, and the worry of making new homes, providing for a large family, the common chills and fever or malaria that troubled so many at that time was preying on his constitution and he fell sick. His boys he depended on to help with the Spring farm work had not returned from an extended hunt in the woods where they had gone to hunt for gee trees and honey. Spring time meant that their crops should be planted. Elvira, now in her sixteenth year, hitched up the oxen and plowed and planted twelve acres of corn. Corn was a very important part of the diet of those times and this incident was common to the children of the saints, who felt they were responsible with their parents to plant, and to weed and harvest the crops. The harvest in converts by the Church Missionary system was being felt in Clay County. From all over the United States, Canada, and Europe they came and many settled there. Their once kind friends, the old settlers became alarmed as they could see they were fast being outnumbered. The conditions were aggravated by the old enemies in Jackson County, and by the preachers of the Christian Churches there. The Latter-day Saints were friendly with the Indians and their enemies used this as an excuse to accuse them of coalition with the Indians to drive out the old settlers and take over political control of the whole state.